Message from the Dean

With leaves beginning to change color, events happening daily, and Cougar football in full swing, fall has clearly arrived at WSU and in the WSU Libraries. Earlier this week, truckloads of new furniture started arriving, and crews have been busy assembling new tables and chairs. Even amid an active construction and assembly area, the Cougar Commons space on the first floor of Terrell Library is filling with students who are gravitating toward the new furniture for studying, collaboration, and community. Several Cougar Commons events are planned at the end of this month and early October with our university partners: a Sept. 30 time-management skills workshop; a Résumé Café on Oct. 5; and an Oct. 8 session on time management and the writing process. This issue of Browse has a story with more details.

Demand for technology lending continues to be exceptionally strong. Within the first three days of the fall semester, all 30 Windows laptops available through the Pullman libraries were checked out. Chromebook lending has also seen heavy use, with 122 of our 142 Chromebooks currently on loan. Thanks to an award from the Student Technology Fee Committee, an additional 30 Windows laptops have been purchased and will be available to students in the coming weeks. At WSU Vancouver, all 85 available laptops have also been checked out, highlighting the ongoing need for technology resources to support student success.

We continue to see remarkable use of our collections. From January through August, the WSU community accessed e-books more than 510,000 times, with particularly strong usage across the ProQuest, Wiley, Springer, and EBSCO platforms. Journal usage exceeded 1.3 million article downloads, reflecting the continued importance of scholarly resources for teaching, learning, and research. WSU’s digital collections, created from archival materials held by Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections (MASC) and the WSU Vancouver campus, also remain highly valued resources, generating nearly 790,000 views during the same period. The most heavily used collections included the Wallis and Marilyn Kimble Northwest History Database, Early Washington Maps, Propaganda Posters, and WSU Chinooks (Yearbooks), 1899-1992.

The fall semester has also brought numerous exciting programs, exhibits, and scholarly initiatives. Highlights include the Sept. 17 showcase of MASC’s Joseph M. Shea Comix and Small Press Collection, 1962-2010, curated by WSU graduate student Cecil Decker. Coming up next week is the Sept. 29 celebration marking the unveiling of the Gallup Collection mural, painted by WSU Department of Art’s Jiemei Lin this past summer. In October and November, the WSU Libraries will partner with the WSU College of Agricultural, Human, and Natural Resource Sciences to present an Open Scholarship and FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable) Data Workshop Series.

This issue of Browse also highlights the Health Sciences Library and the work of director Ann Dyer and her colleagues to create supportive study spaces for students. I am also excited to explore the development of a leisure reading collection near the Terrell Library circulation desk on the Pullman campus, building on excellent examples at the Spokane and Vancouver libraries. I’ll share more information as plans develop. I believe there is a real need for students and community members to have easy access to popular and recreational reading materials. While our collection contains some two million volumes, our current organization can make it difficult to discover contemporary fiction, graphic novels, and other leisure reading titles. A Pullman leisure reading collection would also provide an opportunity to highlight new WSU Press/Basalt Books publications, including Magnificent Wings: Reflections on Birds of the Pacific Northwest by ornithologist Thomas Bancroft.

I appreciate your continued support of WSU Libraries. Please feel free to reach out if you would like to meet.

With warm regards,

Trevor